There’s a website operated by one of my competitors that lists a billion things to do in Lake Geneva. I’m sure it’s helpful. I, too, fall into the trap of listing things to do, but I only list the things that I’d actually like to do at the time that I’d like to do them. For instance, in the fall, I go to the orchard. I don’t go to the orchard in the summer, nor do I go in the young fall. I don’t even want to go to the orchard on moderately warm days. I want to go orcharding when it’s downright chilly. When the wind blows and the leaves are past their peak show. I like to go to the orchard and drink coffee, not because I need to stay awake but because I’m cold and I need the coffee to warm me. This is why I haven’t yet told anyone to go to the orchard. There’s a time for that, and it’s not quite now.
If I told you to go to Venetian Fest, I’m sorry. I don’t go. I don’t like carnies so much, which may mean I’m missing out on bundles of fun. If that’s the case, so be it. It’s because I’m judicious with my attempt at dictating your leisure schedule that there should be some power behind an actual endorsement. If I told you a zillion things to do at the lake, you could bet that many, many billions would be really, really bad. Have you ever heard me tell you to go bowling? Of course not. I’m cautious and selective, because most times just being at the lake is retreat and entertainment enough. What’s better than a Saturday lakeside with nothing on the schedule?
This weekend, you should probably be at the lake. Lake Geneva’s Oktoberfest is today, Saturday, and Sunday. You should go. The weather is going to feel like fall. The lake looks like fall. The trees are starting to get with the program. There are shops in town to patronize, drinks to be imbibed, food to be consumed, and goods to buy. There’s also a section of roadway on Broad Street that will likely be closed to vehicular traffic, so anytime you can wander down the middle of a Lake Geneva street on a weekend is a good time. There will be horses, and some hay, probably pumpkins. Corn, too. Field corn, dried and tied.
That’s it. That’s what you should do. That’s what the city of Lake Geneva would like you to do, but what of the rest of the weekend? In all fairness to the festival, there’s little go capture your attention beyond a couple of hours. The rest of the weekend you should do something just as fun, something far more relaxing, and something way more worthwhile: You should do nothing.
The art of doing nothing is nearly lost. Like blacksmithing and buying vacation homes in Michigan. There’s always something to do, especially at Lake Geneva, but what if the best thing to do on any given weekend is precisely nothing? Why must we always be doing something? I have a good friend who has dozens of children. He may not have that many, but the number feels that strong when in their collective presence. He is tired, a lot. I tell him that he’s tired not because of the 28 kids, but because he doesn’t have any true, daily, down time. He has no window at night, when the kids are asleep in their beds, their futons, and in their drawers. No time to rest on a couch with a news show flickering in the background. No time to just be. There’s tremendous power in being.
This weekend, I’d like you to visit Lake Geneva. Not for my good, but for that of our retailers and those people who are, at this very moment, loading their tame horses into a trailer to drive to Lake Geneva. After you visit the town, and stroll our perfect streets, go somewhere and do nothing. If you have a home here, go there and rest. Sit on a deck in the sun, or sit on a couch in front of the first fire of the season. Stroll around your yard, down the shore path, some ways but not so far as the walking could be construed as purposeful exercise. Just enjoy the lake and this cool October, and set your mind to accomplishing absolutely nothing.